Bureau of Land Management officials will open a 60-day public comment period on whether to expand or create new special areas within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, by identifying additional significant resources values in these special areas.
The federal agency’s announcement on Friday, July 12, said that comment period would begin once the request for information is published in the Federal Register. The BLM will also conduct tribal consultations during this period and has invited consults with Alaska Native villages and corporations.
The proposed action was previewed in April, when the BLM published its final rule to ensure maximum protection for significant resource values on over 13 million acres of special areas in the western Arctic, while balancing extractive activities and supporting subsistence uses for Alaska Native communities.
BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said the agency has a responsibility to manage the western Arctic in ways that honor over 40 Indigenous communities who rely on the resources within the reserve for subsistence.
“With the rapidly changing climate, the special areas are increasingly critical to caribou movement and herd health, as well as other wildlife, migratory birds, and native plants,” Stone-Manning said. “We want to hear from the public to ensure we are managing the western Arctic’s significant resource values in the right ways and right places.”
The Wilderness Society said that identifying and protecting high-value lands and wildlife habitat is required under Section 104 of the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976 and the new regulations released earlier this year.
“We welcome the opportunity to provide input on how to best protect the lands, clean air and water, and other resources of the Western Arctic for generations to come,” said Meda DeWitt, interim Alaska director for the Wilderness Society. “This is an important step toward managing the Western Arctic in a way that honors the needs of the region’s Indigenous peoples, wildlife and other globally significant resource values, while recognizing the threat that climate change poses to Arctic peoples, conservation and communities around the world.”
The 23-million-acre reserve is the largest single remaining unit of public land in the nation – bigger than Yellowstone National Park, and nearly the size of the state of Indiana. Under the area’s integrated activity plan, nearly half of the reserve’s lands have enhanced protections in designated special areas.
The region has for eons been a subsistence area for Alaska Native people, supporting wild ecosystems with resources these communities depend on, including caribou, geese, loons, whitefish, salmon, polar bears, and bowhead whales.
The Biden administration’s final rule issued earlier this year codifies protections for 13.3 million acres, including existing special areas of Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk, Lagoon and Peard Bay – acreage known for significant habitat for wildlife, including grizzly and polar bears, caribou and millions of migratory birds.
The final rule gives the BLM flexibility in whether and when to make changes in special area designations, including a process to amend the Integrated Activity Plan governing the NPR-A or through a separate process.
Under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act (NPRPA) of 1976, as amended, Congress directed the BLM to balance oil and gas development with “maximum protection” of the significant surface resources and values in the special areas.
BLM noted on July 14 that the final rule updates the existing regulatory framework adopted over 40 years ago, allowing the BLM to more effectively change conditions in the NPR-A, striking a balance between extractive non-renewable resource development and protection of surface values, including habitat critical to wildlife for subsistence.
